Deep-rolling roller heads of this type are known e.g. from the following published documents:    1. EP 0 661 137 B1, FIG. 6,    2. EP 0 683 012 B1, FIG. 4,    3. EP 0 839 607 A1, FIG. 1    4. U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,167 FIG. 7 and    5. U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,184 FIG. 2a.
A deep-rolling roller head of this type is however also the object of an older German patent application DE 102 18 703.7 of Jul. 26, 2002 by the same applicant.
The known deep-rolling roller heads have in common that the roller cages are attached on the respective housings of the deep-rolling roller head by means of L-shaped holding devices. The roller cages can be brought into a predetermined position by means of the holding devices and can be fixed on the deep-rolling roller head. For this purpose the deep-rolling rollers are tracked loosely in a rotatable manner in their respective roller cages with little lateral clearance. This clearance amounts as a rule to approximately 0.2 mm. In addition, the deep-rolling rollers are to be offset by approximately 0.2 mm in the direction of the crankshaft relative to the center of the housing of the deep-rolling roller head around which a guide roller of the deep-rolling rollers on which the deep-rolling rollers are supported relative to the crankshaft rotates. In addition the deep-rolling rollers in the deep-rolling roller head also have a spread in the axial direction of a crankshaft.
The precise, i.e. predetermined position of the deep-rolling rollers in the deep-rolling roller head is determining for its serviceable life. Wear occurs in spite of precise adjustment and increases the clearance between the deep-rolling rollers and the roller cages in the course of the deep-rolling roller tool's utilization. From this it can be seen that the precise adjustment of the deep-rolling rollers in the deep-rolling roller head is of particular importance. The adjustment and also the resetting that follows when wear has occurred are performed in the deep-rolling roller heads known from the state of the art via the L-shaped holding devices of the roller cages. Under the best possible circumstances, setting gauges are available for this adjustment. It is also customary to have a person schooled in the art perform the adjustment manually. In that case it has been noted that the serviceable life of the deep-rolling rollers and of the roller cages are influenced substantially by the skill of the person schooled in the art making the adjustment. The adjusting of the deep-rolling rollers is furthermore a slow job, requiring much work time.
This leads to the object of the present invention, to improve a deep-rolling roller head in such manner, and in particular to simplify the configuration of the roller cage to such an extent that precise adjustment of the deep-rolling rollers becomes possible without any special skill or any great expenditure in work time. It should also be possible to equalize wear. At the same time the life of the deep-rolling rollers and of the roller cages as well as the quality of the deep-rolled product are to be improved. Finally the improvement should be easy and economical and also personnel with lesser practice should be able to realize it.